Supplier Guidelines

Sustainable procurement supports Brooklands College in meeting its needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis; generating benefits for students, staff and the community, whilst minimising damage to the environment.

Each year, the College spends millions of pounds on goods, services and works, providing companies of all sizes with a wide range of commercial opportunities.

The advice may be also useful when bidding for any Public Sector contract.

There is a great deal of competition for the College’s contracts and this guide cannot assure individual companies of success. It will, however, provide sufficient information to enable you to tender for College business.

Providing Goods and Services for the College

Orders

All our purchases are covered by a Purchase Order number.

You should never accept a request for goods, works or services without a valid Brooklands College purchase order number in the form of an 8 digit number 3xxxxxxx. You will receive this by email or occasionally by fax for suppliers without email.

Only invoice us when you have received our purchase order number and have supplied the goods and/or services.

Our purchase orders will clearly state the goods or services required, quantity and price. The delivery and invoice addresses will be different but clearly marked.

Our purchase orders will quote your unique Supplier number. If you need to contact us you should quote this number.

Help us to pay on time - invoices:

Your invoices should quote a valid purchase order number, your full business name and address and full details of what has been supplied. Without a purchase order number your invoice can not be processed.

Send your invoice as soon as possible after the dispatch of the goods or services you have provided.

The invoice must be sent to the ‘Invoice to’ address shown on our Purchase Order.

Ensure descriptions, prices, quantities match the purchase order.

Submit valid VAT invoices (unless you are not registered for VAT)

All our invoices are paid using BACS.

Payment terms

The Terms and Conditions of Contract below are those conditions which cover all Purchase Orders for any goods, works or services purchased by Brooklands College.

These Terms and Conditions may only be varied by amendments agreed in writing by Brooklands College or stated on the Purchase Order; these are the only amendments Brooklands College will accept.

Any Purchase Order placed by Brooklands College is conditional upon acceptance of these terms and conditions by the Supplier.

If the Supplier does not wish to accept these terms and conditions, then the Supplier should not accept the Purchase Order, and should inform the contact on the Purchase Order immediately.

A part of the ‘Selling to the College’ guide this page outlines the legislation and regulations the College must follow when buying goods services and works

Brooklands College Expenditure Regulations

The Expenditure Regulations are part of the College’s Financial Regulations. They govern every expenditure arrangement needed to deliver the College’s services. In addition to ensuring compliance with Public Procurement law they aim to achieve value for money on a whole life basis.

E U Public Procurement Legislation

Goods and Services contracts over £140,000 (approximately) and works contracts over £3,500,000 (approximately) have to be purchased in accord with EU Procurement Directives

(The following links will direct you to the dedicated suppliers’ portal of these organisations)

This page tells you how and when the College will invite suppliers to quote or to tender

In accord with the Financial Regulations, the College can obtain quotations or invite tenders for contracts of up to £25,000 in value, whichever is appropriate. However, for contracts of over £25,000, tenders are invited or a “mini-competition” is held between suppliers available to the College through one of the following purchasing consortia:

Quotations

Quotations generally obtained from current suppliers, the Constructionline pre-qualification service and other recommended sources. The College will accept two (2) written quotes for orders between £2,000 -£10,000 and three (3) written quote for orders between £10,000 and £50,000.

Tenders

A contract notice or advertisement will invite companies to submit an Expression of Interest. In accord with the Financial Regulations, the College can obtain quotations or invite tenders for contracts of up to £50,000 in value, whichever is appropriate. However, for contracts of over £50,000, tenders are invited or a “mini-competition” is held between suppliers available to the College through one of the following purchasing consortia:

Pre-Qualification Questionnaire

Following this, a Pre- Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) may be sent out. The purpose of a PQQ is to assess a potential bidder’s suitability to supply the College and the ability to satisfy the contract before the tenders are issued. It saves time and effort being unnecessarily spent on compiling tenders. In general the information requested provides basic details about an organisation, verifies that it can be identified as a legitimate, discrete trading organisation, that it has acceptable levels of economic and financial standing and that it promotes good practice in areas of equal opportunities, environmental protection and health and safety. The areas assessed can be summarised as follows:

Financial information

In this section companies are asked for certain financial information. They may be asked to submit audited accounts and annual reports for the previous three years. This information is used to assess the financial position of the company in relation to the size of the contract.

Information is also required to check that a company complies with the College’s insurance requirements

Experience and technical ability

Further information requested seeks to ensure that a company has the relevant experience and technical ability to fulfil the requirements of contract. It may be necessary to provide references.

Health and Safety

Depending on the nature of the goods, services or works, organisations may be required to submit their Health and Safety Policy.

Equal Opportunities

The College is committed to a policy of treating everyone, including its employees and job applicants, equally. No employee, potential employee or agency worker shall receive less favourable treatment or consideration on the grounds of race, colour, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, marital status or part-time status; nor will they be disadvantaged on any basis that cannot be justified as necessary on operational grounds.

In carrying out College contracts, suppliers will be required to honour this policy in their treatment of members of the public, their staff, their agents and their sub-contractors

Sustainability and environmental care

The College is committed to protecting the environment and ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and in the future. Organisations will therefore be asked to provide details of their environmental policy

Quality assurance

This section is to enable the College to assess whether or not an organisation has suitable quality assurance systems in place to undertake the contract. This will usually be demonstrated by certification by approved assessment companies

Invitation to tender

Companies will be invited to tender; either in an “Open Procedure” where all companies Expressing an Interest are invited, or in a “Restricted Procedure” where, through use of a PQQ, only selected companies are invited to do so. In either case, the tender documentation sent out will usually include:

instructions to tenderers

a specification

a pricing schedule

terms and conditions of contract

a form of tender

a tender return address label

Tender evaluation and contract award

Evaluation will focus on examining how the tender proposals will deliver the service (“quality”) and the price. The required balance between the two will depend on the nature of the contract

Normally, the College will award the contract of the basis of the “Most Economically Advantageous Tender” (MEAT).

You should note that the College is not bound to accept the lowest or any of the bids submitted.

The successful tenderer will be notified in writing

Debriefing

The College will always endeavour to provide unsuccessful tenderers feedback on their submissions to help them find out why their bid failed. This information can be used to help with any future bids, as being unsuccessful in one contract does not mean that a company will be unsuccessful in the future.

Contract performance

Contracts have to be performed in accordance with the requirements set out in the contract documentation. The College is continuously striving to improve its own performance and expects its contractors to do the same.

This page provides information about preferred suppliers to the College

Goods and or Services

The College does not hold a list of preferred suppliers and is a member of two purchasing consortia, the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) and the Southern University Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) and we encourage our staff to use suppliers available through these consortia’s framework agreements

Suppliers on these framework agreements have won their inclusion through full EU tender exercises

The CPC is a nationwide consortium for FE Colleges. Currently there are over 500 member colleges. Click here for the CPC suppliers’ portal

We are an Affiliated Associate Member of the SUPC with the University of Surrey as our sponsor. Click here for the SUPC suppliers’ portal

Like all other Public Sector organisations we can use the framework agreements managed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Click here for the OGC suppliers’ portal

The Finance Department is committed to develop and implement Procurement & Purchasing policies and procedures in respect of the College’s purchasing of works, goods and services taking in consideration “Good Practice” and “Best Value for Money”

The Accountant
Ext: 7808.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Responsibilities

To promote and develop central purchasing arrangements within the College actively identifying opportunities for central purchasing to achieve savings.

To provide professional purchasing support to all colleagues including advice on the preparation of tender, quotation and contract documentation, advice on appropriate purchasing methods, and consideration of operating lease vs. outright purchase options.

To supervise all college tendering and manage all college-wide contracts (including framework agreements where appropriate), from establishing requirements through to sourcing, negotiation and contract/supplier management.

To manage the day to day running of purchasing and the purchase ledger function within the Finance Department.

To develop and maintain a contract register for the College.

To undertake value for money reviews of existing contracts and advise on improvements.

To review and report on alternative approaches to purchasing including use of consortia, shared arrangements with other public sector arrangements, and best practice identified by the Centre for Procurement Performance.

To develop and implement appropriate IT-based solutions to improve the efficiency of the purchasing process.

Managing College purchasing systems including system administration and training issues in conjunction with the Financial Controller.

To administer the College’s insurance policies including provision of information required by the insurance company and co-ordination of claims.

To provide statistical reports and returns as may be required by budget-holders, College management and external stakeholders.

To design and deliver purchasing training sessions to disseminate best practice and strengthen staff awareness of college procurement strategy and regulations.

To ensure that the College complies with all relevant national and European legislation relating to procurement and purchasing.

Provide support to budget holders as directed by the Financial Controller including monthly meetings, resolving queries and providing basic reports and analysis as required.